According to at least one source, Kahlo may have been written
in D'ni year 8343 by a young writer named Jamen. Regardless of
who actually wrote it, the Age became the home of a popular D'ni
sport.
The sport was so popular that D'ni pubs were often devoted to
it, such as the Kahlo Pub found in the Tokotah II building on Å'gura
Island. The pubs had viewers that showed still images of the games
and, according to one document, live broadcasts of games in progress.
It's never said if the D'ni placed wagers on the games, but people
being people, it wouldn't be a surprise if they had.
The DRC found a Kahlo linking book fairly early in their attempt
to restore D'ni, and it was in Phase Four by AD 2003. It was suspended
by that year due to the DRC's usual reasons; the lack of money
and manpower to continue the work. It remained in that status until
the DRC had to leave the caverns in 2004.
They returned in 2006 after securing a new source of funding,
but after a short time in the Age, work there was again suspended
by Dr. Ikuro Kodama and Michael Engberg before it reached Phase
Five.
The Age:
The Age of Kahlo was set in what was described as a rough wasteland
that was subject to winds which were said to reach speeds upward
of two hundred miles per hour at times. Most of the life of the
Age was found in narrow canyons and depressions that provided shelter
from the worst of the gales. The Age was named for the prevailing weather; the word kalo means wind in D'ni.
This is a sound clip of the wind over the wastelands.
This is a sound clip of the wind in the canyons.
The game field used by the D'ni was established in a depression
that seems to have once been the body of a gigantic animal of some
kind. It was probably buried in magma, since the area is still
volcanically active and produces geysers. When its body decayed,
the rock covering it collapsed forming a large hollow that two
seed pod plants took root inside.
This is a sound clip of one of the geysers in the game arena bubbling.
This is a sound clip another, more energetic geyser in the game arena.
One of the more notable features of the Age were the bones of
animals that grew so large that even the largest of Earth's dinosaurs
would have appeared to be dwarfs beside them. The bones were scattered
across the landscape of the Age.
This picture shows the area below the hive that the D'ni used as their game arena.
It's unlikely that Kahlo was ever the home of a native human race,
but there was a species of flying creature there that may have been at
least as intelligent as Earth's dolphins and porpoises. The creatures
were social, living communally in a large structure the DRC called
the hive. The creatures were named kåmkenta by the D'ni
Zoological Society. As their web site is now defunct, I don't know
why that name was chosen.
The hive was a multistory structure suspended among the bones of
one of the Age's giants, and the kåmkenta entered it by flying
up into a hole in the bottom. The spherical part is where the queen lived..
This picture shows close-up of the structure.
This picture shows inside the hive. Several kåmkenta can
be seen near the bottom opening.
A Bahroglyph of kåmkenta can be found near the Journey
door in Eder Kēmo.
In the Museum Pod Age, a freshwater ray
that looks somewhat similar to kåmkenta were given the same
name.
It is unknown
if there was more than one kåmkenta hive. It's likely that
there are more, but only one is shown in the sketches and photographs
of the Age. The hive had a queen, and this picture shows her although
her appearance is not very clear.
This sketch shows the queen in a less confusing manner.
It is not known if she had a major role in procreation. The other
kåmkenta had genders and were differentiated by color. The
documents do not clearly say which are which, but the females may
have been blue and the males yellow. This was convenient for the
D'ni, who could form up into teams based on their kåmkentas'
coloration.
The kåmkenta had a large number of vocalizations, and the tones between males and females were fairly distinct. This is a sound clip of a male vocalization.
This is a sound clip of a female making the same type of vocalization.
The following pictures show some of the type of terrain found
within the game arena.
The Game:
The popular sport involved two opposing teams that rode upon kåmkenta-back.
It's unknown just how intelligent the kåmkenta were, but
there are hints that they were partners in the game rather than
an animal that the D'ni had tamed.
The goal of the game was to gather charges of different colors
of plasma from geysers scattered throughout the playing field.
The opposing team would try to intercept the player carrying the
plasma charge, and there were places where gusts of wind would
disperse the charge if the player flew through them.
This is a picture of one of the areas where the plasma charges were gathered.
The
charges were carried to large plants on opposite sides of the field,
with each team needing a specific color of plasma to feed their
plant. The appropriate charges caused seed pods in the
plants to mature. When one of the of seed pods was charged,
the seeds were sucked up through the plant’s stems and expelled
violently out of a flower at the top.
For the kåmkenta, that was the reward for playing along.
The riders were the ones who could gather and carry the plasma
charges. The kåmkenta had no way of moving them on their
own, and had to rely on random chance for a charge to reach the
plants naturally. The seeds that the plants discharged were a favorite
food of the creatures, and when a plant ejected a batch they'd
swarm to catch them as they fell. Not only would they eat some
of the seeds themselves, they also gathered them to carry back
to their hive to feed their queen and their young. That made the
game mutually beneficial. The D'ni were entertained by the sport,
and the kåmkenta got the food they loved most.
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